Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory That Twitter Is Limiting His Reach

President Donald Trump on Thursday peddled the baseless conspiracy concept that conservatives’ social media engagement is being restricted by social media platforms in some nefarious plot to silence them politically.

The president didn’t present a shred of proof when he advised a room stuffed with conservative influencers, bigots and conspiracy theorists at his White Home Social Media Summit that his follower counts weren’t what they was as a result of Twitter was purposefully holding him again.

“What’s going on here?” Trump mentioned. “It used to take me a short number of days to pick up 100,000 people. … Now it’s 10 times as long.”

With out proof, TRUMP suggests Twitter is limiting his followers, retweets and likes.

He claimed ― additionally with out proof ― that the platforms have been blocking individuals from following him, although he did be aware that he was “hotter than ever” on Twitter.

Conservatives have lengthy maintained that they’re being handled unfairly by the platforms due to their political beliefs, although lots of their extra particular claims both are unproven or have been confirmed false. On the identical time, a number of the most outspoken voices on the suitable boast gargantuan follower counts and revel in monumental attain. Trump bragged on Thursday that he had “way over 100 million” followers throughout a number of platforms.

In the meantime, the checklist of conservative voices who’ve been banned or suspended for breaking the platforms’ phrases of service ― normally surrounding their hate speech insurance policies ― is continually rising. Infowars host Alex Jones was banned from Fb, Apple, YouTube and Spotify for peddling in racist and violent conspiracy theories. Profession Islamophobe Laura Loomer handcuffed herself to Twitter headquarters after she was banned for breaking the platform’s phrases of service. The Proud Boys extremist gang and their founder, Gavin McInnes, have been banned from a number of platforms for doing the identical. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was reportedly invited to Trump’s occasion, has repeatedly fielded complaints in regards to the racism and threats that he’s tweeted.

Trump mentioned on the finish of his lengthy, rambling speech that he would invite representatives from the platforms to the White Home at a later date to debate his claims. (Spokespeople for Twitter, Fb and Google mentioned they weren’t invited to Thursday’s summit.)

Twitter declined to touch upon Trump’s allegations instantly, however a spokesperson mentioned about common claims of bias, “We enforce the Twitter Rules impartially for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation. We are constantly working to improve our systems and will continue to be transparent in our efforts.”

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